She remarked that when the sun should hang over the brow of the mesa
at the height indicated by her laborious fingers, the ware would be
baked, the kiln a heap of ashes, the yellow decoration a lively red
and the black a dark brown on a rich cream-color ground. Next day,
with true foresight, she brought her quaint wares to the camp and made
a good bargain for them, incidentally asking, "Matches all gone?"
One woman at least in Tusayan is a weaver of blankets. Anowita's wife
enjoys that distinction because she is a Navaho, among whom weaving is
woman's work. The Hopi housewives have enough to do keeping house, a
thing not burdensome to the Navaho, and as has been explained, the
Hopi men hold a monopoly of the spinning and weaving.
Time out of mind the Hopi have grown cotton in their little fields,
and the first white men that made their acquaintance were presented
with "towels" of their weaving as a peace offering. In the
cliff-houses of the ancient people are found woven fabrics of cotton
and rugs made of strips of rabbit fur like those now to be seen in the
pueblos. The ancient people also had feather garments made by tying
plumage to a network of cords. In the ruins of the pueblos one often
finds cotton seeds which have been buried with the dead, and the
braided mats of yucca or bark and bits of cloth fortunately preserved
show that the people of former times were skilful weavers. There is no
reason to doubt that the Hopi stuffs were prized for their excellence
throughout the Southwest in the early times as they are now.
When the Spaniards brought sheep among the pueblos, the weavers and
fabric makers seem to have appreciated the value of wool at once, and
the ancient garments of feathers and skins quickly disappeared. Cotton
remained in use only for ceremonial costumes or for cord employed in
the religious ceremonies. The rabbit-fur robes which once were made
throughout a vast region of the Rockies from Alaska to the Gulf of
California were largely displaced by blankets, in later years,
gorgeously dyed and cunningly woven. Long before the introduction of
trade dyes the Hopi were satisfied with sober colors; the dark blue
and brown given to the yarn by the women were from the plants. Even
now the Hopi weavers stick to their colors and refuse to perpetrate
the zigzags of the Navaho. For this reason the women of all the
pueblos of the Southwest dress in dark blue and brown, as the Hopi are
purveyors of stuffs for wear to all their fellow house-dwellers of
Indian lineage. Good cloth it is, too, and worthy of its renown, for
it wears exceedingly well. More than one generation often enjoys its
service, and when the older folks get through with their blanket
dresses, the little ones have garments fashioned from them for their
own apparel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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